Whatever happened to Carl Sargent?

[DDK]

Hmm... so now we have four possibilities:

1) He was crippled in an accident and never wrote again.

2) He freaked out and never wrote again.

3) He died... and never wrote again.

4) And my personal favourite:

I heard that a group of crazed 1e Greyhawkers abducted him in an attempt to force him to write a new book invalidating all his 2e Greyhawk work.

I shall call up the peasant levies, arm the militia, and summon all the knights of the land and their loyal followers and we shall mount the greatest rescue mission of all time!

We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight in the valleys. We shall fight in the streets. But we will never give up. We will never surrender!

Onward Sargent's soldiers...

 

[Ulrick]

...And the only way you'll get him back is to convince Hasbro to give WotC to me for FREE. When that is complete, the name shall change back to TSR!!!



I also belong to the Mr. Belvedere fanclub. He's in a large glass jar in my basement until they bring back the show.

 

[Sulimo]

Hmm, I may be getting confused, but I *think* he may have passed away. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

I think you might be getting him confused with Nigel Findley another great designer, who did indeed pass away.

 

[scarymonkey]

I read sometime ago on the WFRP boards that he just left the business. I also seem to recall that he was a doctor of something as well, so I'm sure he isn't hurting for a job. He's definitely my favorite frp writer and the only one that I would buy stuff just because he was the author. And for the record, From the Ashes is the definitive Greyhawk to me. I ran a great campaign a few years ago using From the Ashes, The Marklands, and Night Below. His stuff was usually dark, gritty, and fun to read. Maybe we should start a fan club.

Here's some links to pages that list what he contributed-

http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=1677

http://www.rpgunited.com/authors/authors/sargentc.html

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Carl_Sargent.htm

 

[Tewligan]

I don't think he passed away, but he did drop out of the game industry a good five years ago. As I understand it, Carl was hired to work at FASA full time as one of their RPG developers. This entailed a move from the UK to Chicago. Though it was all set up (plane tickets, arrival date, etc.), he never showed up. FASA got concerned and tried to track him down, but they never heard from him again. Apparently (and this is where we get into the hearsay part of this story), Carl had some kind of "what am I doing with my life" freakout, and moved to north of England to get away from it all. That's the last I've heard about him.

That's weird. David Trampier (of "Wormy"), Carl Sargent...what is it about FRPG writing that makes people flip out and disappear?

 

[Henry]

It's not just FRPG's - all jobs have a certain quotient of people who have a soul-searching event happen, and they abruptly re-think and change their entire lives overnight. Moving to Chicago to take a job designing games would do that for you - of course, going broke doing artwork could also do it.

 

[Numion]

That's weird. David Trampier (of "Wormy"), Carl Sargent...what is it about FRPG writing that makes people flip out and disappear?

Maybe Sargent accidentally saw 1e GH website, or read gene's opinions, or whatever. Taken too seriously, those GH fanboys can cause bad vibes.. ask Erik Mona

 

[EricNoah]

Ok, folks, let's try to keep the conversation away from bashing "fanboys" of any stripe, particular individuals, etc. please.

 

[grodog]

OK, I just pinged James, hopefully he'll have some definitive information.

I'll let you know what I hear back.

 

[tarchon]

I don't think he passed away, but he did drop out of the game industry a good five years ago. As I understand it, Carl was hired to work at FASA full time as one of their RPG developers. This entailed a move from the UK to Chicago. Though it was all set up (plane tickets, arrival date, etc.), he never showed up. FASA got concerned and tried to track him down, but they never heard from him again. Apparently (and this is where we get into the hearsay part of this story), Carl had some kind of "what am I doing with my life" freakout, and moved to north of England to get away from it all. That's the last I've heard about him.

It's a real shame, as Carl was a talented designer.

I have to rate him as the only module author whose name I've bothered to learn.

They say he's had some success under his new pen name, J.K. Rowling.





(How's that for a wild rumor, eh?)